Halloween Dice Games for Kids

October 17, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

There are lots of different ways to incorporate dice games into your Halloween content at school or at home. Using dice is a great way for kids to practice one-to-one correspondence and counting, or for older kids it just adds a fun spin to a game.

One of the most basic Halloween dice game ideas is rolling a jack ‘o lantern. Each number on the die corresponds to a different part of the face, so you can end up with, say, lots of eyes if you keep rolling the same number (or just keep rolling until you hit a number you haven’t had before). Views from a Stepstool has a version of this game that uses one die, while the printable from The Savvy Sparrow uses two dice so there are more options.

You can also roll a monster, which is the same concept, just a little more open ended. You can make up your own rules like the ones above, or use this one from Mommy Made That, which has kids roll for the number of eyes, legs, teeth and arms their monster will have, as well as color and other features to add.

Or roll a monster face with these instructions from Drawing How to Draw. This one uses a single die and you roll for the specific features (like a certain kind of mouth or hair) that you then draw on your page.

The Fourth Grade Geek has a dice game on Teachers Pay Teachers that would be fun for older elementary school kids. The object is to build your skeleton the fastest based on rolls of the dice, but there’s a twist: if you roll a 6, someone can steal one of your pieces!

You can also use dice to assemble a story, like with this printable from ELSA Support. This was designed for English language learners but would be fun for kids of all ages (with little kids you could roll as a group and write a story together). Each roll gives you a part of the story such as a character, setting, emotion, prop and problem, which are then used to write a spooky story.

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Book Review: Dear Math, We’re Not Friends

My daughter has always liked math, which is a relief to me as someone who never really got math when I was growing up. (As a knitter I use math a lot now and have managed to learn what I need, but not much else.)

For kids who aren’t fans of math who could use a little encouragement and understanding of what math is for, there’s Dear Math, We’re Not Friends by Lina Chopra Haldar with illustrations by Teresa Martinez.

Nikil starts school not liking math and his teacher has him write letters to math. He complains that math makes his tummy hurt but thinks it’s funny when his teacher says talking about shapes and drawing are part of math.

As the year goes on he learns about skip counting, counting backwards, fractions and the special names for different shapes. When he learns about octagons he starts seeing them everywhere. He discovers that math is part of being an astronaut and an artist, two things he might like to be when he grows up.

Math helps him with soccer and helps bees make honey, and he uses it in his art projects, too. In the end he decides that math really is his friend because it helps you make things and understand the world around you.

The book is cute and has full illustrations that literally show math in different environments. It also includes a page about the inspiration for the story and why the author, a math teacher herself, wanted to write a book addressing math anxiety. It has prompts kids can use to write their own letters to math or use in discussions about math, as well as other ideas to help kids feel more confident about math.

This would be a good book for math teachers and others to have on hand for those kids who don’t love math or see a purpose for it outside of the classroom. The target reader is ages 5-8.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Beaming Books. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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